Quickstart

Welcome to the Salt quickstart! Use this guide to try Salt for the first time and experiment with some of its features.

Salt is a powerful automation framework and configuration management tool that can help you reduce costs by improving the efficiency and reliability of your IT operations.

Salt can automate and cut down on the time spent on common IT tasks, such as:

  • Installing and upgrading software

  • Configuring and maintaining devices

  • Deploying applications and services

You can use Salt with a wide range of platforms, including Linux, Windows, and MacOS.

Tip

To learn more about what Salt can do, see About Salt.

In this quickstart, you’ll get a taste of some of Salt’s functionality and learn how to work with Salt.

Who should do the quickstart tutorial?

This tutorial is intended for IT professionals, such as systems administrators, site reliability engineers, and DevOps engineers. You don’t need to be an expert to use Salt, but you should understand some of the basics of working in this field.

Note

This tutorial uses a command-line interface (CLI) and you should have a certain level of comfort with working in bash, PowerShell, or similar CLI interfaces.

Before you start

Salt uses a few unique terms. As you work through this tutorial, if you need a reference guide that explains some of these terms and concepts, see Salt system architecture.

Install Salt with the quickstart script

In this exercise:

  • You will install the quickstart version of Salt, which is a lightweight version of Salt designed to show you key features.

  • Then, you will try a few commands to demonstrate howSalt can quickly retrieve helpful information about your system.

To complete the exercise:

  1. For Linux and MacOS only: Install the prerequisites, using these commands. Select the tab for your operating system:

    sudo apt install curl xz-utils jq tar

    sudo tdnf install curl xz jq tar coreutils gawk

    sudo dnf install curl xz jq tar

# If dnf is unavailable and the above fails:
sudo yum install curl xz jq tar

    sudo zypper install curl xz jq tar

    brew install curl xz jq

  2. Download and run the quickstart script:

    curl -o quick.sh -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/saltstack/salt-bootstrap/develop/salt-quick-start.sh
bash ./quick.sh
    curl -o quick.sh -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/saltstack/salt-bootstrap/develop/salt-quick-start.sh
bash ./quick.sh
    Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process -Force
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.SecurityProtocolType]'Tls12'
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/saltstack/salt-bootstrap/develop/salt-quick-start.ps1 -OutFile .\quick.ps1
.\quick.ps1

    Note

    Some commands can only run from an elevated prompted, meaning you will need to run them as an Administrator.

    This script downloads and extracts Salt. You’ll see output similar to the following (based on your operating system):

     *  INFO: Downloading Salt
 *  INFO: Extracting Salt
 *  INFO: Get started with Salt by running the following commands
 *  INFO: Add Salt to current path
 *  INFO:   export PATH=/home/${USER}/salt:$PATH
 *  INFO: Use the provided Saltfile
 *  INFO:   export SALT_SALTFILE=/home/${USER}/salt/Saltfile
 *  INFO: Create Salt states in /home/${USER}/salt/srv/salt

     *  INFO: Downloading Salt
 *  INFO: Extracting Salt
 *  INFO: Adding Salt to current path
 *  INFO:   C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\salt
 *  INFO: Setting the SALT_SALTFILE environment variable
 *  INFO:   C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\salt\Saltfile
 *  INFO: Create Salt states in C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\salt\srv\salt

    Note

    Copy the last line of the script output which tells you where to create your state files. You will need this directory at various points in the tutorial.

  3. For Linux and MacOS only: You need the two export lines from the output of the previous command. This output is specific to your operating system and you will use it for this step.

    Using that output, copy the two export lines from the script output to update PATH and set the included SALT_SALTFILE for your system. For example:

    export PATH=/home/${USER}/salt:$PATH
export SALT_SALTFILE=/home/${USER}/salt/Saltfile

    These commands allow Salt to run from those directories.

  4. Now that Salt is installed, try running your first Salt command:

    salt-call grains.items

    This command may take a moment to run, depending on your processor speed. This command gets all the grain information for the machine you ran the command on, which is your local machine in this case.

    Tip

    Grains are the basic information about an operating system. It collects and displays a wide variety of information, such as your operating system, domain name, IP address, kernel, OS type, memory, and many other system properties. You can also create your own custom grain data so that you can target nodes based on your own criteria.

    The following is an example of some of the grain output:

     local:
 ----------
 cpu_model:
     11th Gen Intel Core i7-11850H @ 2.50GHz
 cpuarch:
     x86_64
 num_cpus:
     16
 num_gpus:
     2
 os:
     Ubuntu
 os_family:
     Debian
 osarch:
     amd64
 oscodename:
     jammy
 osfinger:
     Ubuntu-22.04
 osfullname:
     Ubuntu
 osmajorrelease:
     22
 osrelease:
     22.04
 osrelease_info:
     - 22
     - 4
 pythonversion:
     - 3
     - 10
     - 12
     - final
     - 0
 saltversion:
     3006.2
 saltversioninfo:
     - 3006
     - 2

  5. Try running a few more commands to get information about your system:

    Command

    Example output

    salt-call test.version

    3006.1

    salt-call grains.get username

    root

    salt-call grains.get osrelease

    5.0

    salt-call grains.get productname

    VMware7,1

    salt-call grains.get num_cpus

    1

    salt-call grains.get num_gpus

    0

In this exercise you used Salt from the command line to get basic information about your system. As you can see, you can use Salt to monitor and quickly get system data. But that’s only a tiny fraction of what Salt can do. In the next tutorial exercise, you’ll see how Salt can connect nodes together to create a sophisticated job and communication system.

Install Salt on your infrastructure (Linux only)

While it’s definitely interesting to see how Salt can quickly get detailed information from one node, the real power of Salt comes from connecting it to many nodes.

Note

As of this writing, this tutorial exercise only works on Linux-based operating systems. However, the other tutorial exercises work for all supported operating systems. To continue the tutorial, skip to Write and test your first Salt state.

In the classic Salt infrastructure, a node running the salt-master agent can rapidly issue commands to many nodes at the same time as long as those nodes are running the salt-minion agent.

In this exercise:

  • You will use the quickstart script again to install the Salt master and minion agents on your local machine.

  • Then, you will experiment with a few commands to see how the master and minions interact.

To complete the exercise:

  1. Run the quickstart script again with an additional flag that installs the master and minion agents:

    bash ./quick.sh -f

    This script downloads and extracts Salt. You’ll see output similar to the following:

       *  INFO: A salt directory already exists here, not extracting.
   *  INFO: Get started with Salt by running the following commands
   *  INFO: Add Salt to current path
   *  INFO:   export PATH=/home/${USER}/salt:$PATH
   *  INFO: Use the provided Saltfile
   *  INFO:   export SALT_SALTFILE=/home/${USER}/salt/Saltfile
   *  INFO: Create Salt states in /home/${USER}/salt/srv/salt
   *  INFO: Starting salt-master
   *  INFO: Starting salt-minion
   *  INFO: Run salt-key -L to see pending minion keys
   *  INFO: Run salt-key -a minion to accept the pending minion key

  2. With the salt-master agent and salt-minion agent installed and running, the master and minion need to authenticate with each other using Salt keys. Run the following command to list the Salt keys:

    salt-key -L

    Note

    Salt keys allow the minion and master to authenticate and communicate with each other. See Accept the minion keys for more information.

    After running this command, you’ll see output similar to the following:

     Accepted Keys:
 minion
 Denied Keys:
 Unaccepted Keys:
 Rejected Keys:

  3. Accept the minion key by running this command:

    salt-key -a minion

  4. When prompted, type y to accept the key and continue.

    The following keys are going to be accepted:
Unaccepted Keys:
minion
Proceed? [n/Y] y
Key for minion minion accepted.

  5. Now that the master and minion can communicate with each other, try running this command:

    salt minion test.version

    Tip

    This command is targeting the minion using its minion ID, which is minion in this case. You can target minions using other methods, such as targeting by grain data. For example, you could target all the minions with a particular operating system. See Targeting minions for more options.

    The minion returns information about which version of Salt it is running:

    minion:
    3006.1

  6. Try running a few more commands to get information about your system:

    Command

    Description

    salt \* test.ping

    Lists each connected minion and returns a True value if the minion is enabled

    salt \* disk.usage

    List the disks for each minion and information about their current disk capacity

    salt \* pkg.list_pkgs

    List the current packages installed on all minions along with the package version number

    salt \* pkg.version [package-name]

    List the versions of a certain package for all connected minions

    salt \* grains.get os_family

    List the OS family for all connected minions

    salt \* service.get_all

    List the installed services on all connected minions

    salt \* service.get_enabled

    List the installed and enabled services on all connected minions

In this exercise, you saw how Salt could be used for remote execution, which is when you connect remotely to your nodes (minions) to execute commands and get data. In the next exercise, you will learn how to manage nodes at scale using the Salt state system.

Write and test your first Salt state

In the previous exercise, you learned about Salt’s remote execution system, which can execute ad-hoc commands to multiple nodes (minions) from the command line. Salt has an additional method of managing nodes through the state system. States are files written in Jinja or YAML that contain a set of declarative statements that keep the targeted nodes (minions) into a desired “state.”

If it is helpful, you can think of states as a kind of a policy that can be applied to new or existing nodes. Salt checks to see if the targeted node is in the desired state, such as whether it has the right applications installed and/or whether it has the correct configuration settings. If the node is not in the desired state—if it is not in compliant with policy—Salt changes the node to put it into the desired state. For example, it installs the required application or it applies the correct configuration settings.

In this exercise:

  • You will learn how to create a basic Salt state file and test that it is working. This state file will create a small text file on your machine.

  • After ensuring it is working, you will edit the file to add additional content to simulate an unauthorized change to the file.

  • Then, you will use Salt to restore the text file back to its desired, compliant state with the original content of the text file.

To complete the exercise:

  1. Begin the tutorial by confirming that your system currently does not have the managed-file.txt in your salt directory path. Run this command:

    cat /tmp/managed-file.txt

    If the file does not exist, you will see output similar to this:

    cat: /tmp/managed-file.txt: No such file or directory

    Get-Content C:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt

    If the file does not exist, you will see output similar to this:

    Get-Content : Cannot find path 'C:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt' because it does not exist.

  2. Create a new state file called example-state-file.sls in the state tree directory that the Salt quickstart script created for state files.

    Note

    In the second step of the first tutorial exercise, Install Salt with the quickstart script, the quickstart listed the directory that you need to use for state files. If you didn’t copy that directory down at the time, scroll back in your history to get that directory now. You need that directory path for this exercise.

    The directory was listed in the output as: Create Salt states in and then lists the directory path.

  3. Open the new example-state-file.sls file and copy this content to it:

    example-state-file.sls
    add_example_file:
  file.managed:
    - name: /tmp/managed-file.txt
    - makedirs: True
    - contents: Yay!
    example-state-file.sls
    add_example_file:
  file.managed:
    - name: c:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt
    - makedirs: True
    - contents: Yay!

    What does this Salt state file mean?

    By default, the file.managed function of the file state module stores a file on the Salt master. When this state is applied to a minion, Salt checks to see if the file is present and if the content matches the version of the file stored on the Salt master. If the file is not present, Salt creates the file on the minion. If the file is present but does not match, Salt updates the contents of the file to match.

    The file.managed function is a popular module with many Salt users because it is a great way to quickly add and modify configuration files on the nodes you manage with Salt.

    In this state file:

    • The part that says add_example_file is the identifier. The name of the identifier is arbitrary (user-defined) and you can choose any name for the identifier. As a best practice, give it an identifier name that explains the task or goal this state declaration accomplishes.

    • file.managed is the Salt state module and function you are invoking. The rest of the indented sections are the arguments for the module.

    • The name argument lists the directory path and name for the file.

    • The makedirs argument creates the directory for the file if the directory isn’t present.

    • The contents argument adds the text Yay! to the file.

  4. Run this command to execute the state file:

    salt-call state.apply example-state-file

    When you run this command, you should see output similar to this:

    local:
----------
         ID: add_example_file
   Function: file.managed
       Name: /tmp/managed-file.txt
     Result: True
    Comment: File /tmp/managed-file.txt updated
    Started: 02:09:01.040086
   Duration: 35.883 ms
    Changes:
    ----------
    diff:
        New file

Summary for local
------------
Succeeded: 1 (changed=1)
Failed:    0
------------
Total states run:     1
Total run time:  35.883 ms

    salt-call state.apply example-state-file

    When you run this command, you should see output similar to this:

    local:
----------
         ID: add_example_file
   Function: file.managed
       Name: C:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt
     Result: True
    Comment: File C:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt updated
    Started: 02:09:01.040086
   Duration: 35.883 ms
    Changes:
    ----------
    diff:
        New file

Summary for local
------------
Succeeded: 1 (changed=1)
Failed:    0
------------
Total states run:     1
Total run time:  35.883 ms

  5. Run this command to confirm that the new state file exists:

    cat /tmp/managed-file.txt

    If the file exists, it will print the contents of the file:

    Yay!

    Get-Content C:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt

    If the file exists, it will print the contents of the file:

    Yay!

  6. Now you will simulate an ad-hoc change to the file contents. Run this command to add additional content to the file:

    echo "Extra content" >> /tmp/managed-file.txt

    Add-Content C:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt -Value "Extra content"

  7. Run this command to confirm that the state file now contains extra content:

    cat /tmp/managed-file.txt

    If the file exists, it will print the contents of the file:

    Yay!
Extra content

    Get-Content C:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt

    If the file exists, it will print the contents of the file:

    Yay!
Extra content

  8. Re-apply the state file to restore the managed-file to its desired state:

    salt-call state.apply example-state-file

    When you run this command, you should see output similar to this:

    local:
----------
         ID: add_example_file
   Function: file.managed
       Name: /tmp/managed-file.txt
     Result: True
    Comment: File /tmp/managed-file.txt updated
    Started: 02:09:01.040086
   Duration: 35.883 ms
    Changes:
    ----------
    diff:
        ---
        +++
        @@ -1,2 +1 @@
        yay!
        -Extra content

Summary for local
------------
Succeeded: 1 (changed=1)
Failed:    0
------------
Total states run:     1
Total run time:  35.883 ms

    salt-call state.apply example-state-file

    When you run this command, you should see output similar to this:

    local:
----------
         ID: add_example_file
   Function: file.managed
       Name: C:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt
     Result: True
    Comment: File C:\Windows\temp\managed-file.txt updated
    Started: 02:09:01.040086
   Duration: 35.883 ms
    Changes:
    ----------
    diff:
        ---
        +++
        @@ -1,2 +1 @@
        yay!
        -Extra content

Summary for local
------------
Succeeded: 1 (changed=1)
Failed:    0
------------
Total states run:     1
Total run time:  35.883 ms

  9. Run this command to confirm that the state file has been restored to its original content, its desired state:

    cat /salt/managed-file.txt

    If the file has been restored, it will print the contents of the file:

    Yay!

    Get-Content \salt\managed-file.txt

    If the file has been restored, it will print the contents of the file:

    Yay!

As this exercise demonstrates, you can use Salt’s state system to ensure your nodes are always in a desired state. Using the file.managed state module, you can prevent configuration drift by ensuring your nodes only have the configurations content approved by your team.

This exercise implies other powerful configuration management strategies. For example, rather than storing your state files on the master, you could connect it to an external Git repository to ensure your configuration files are accurately version-controlled in an infrastructure-as-code system.

Congratulations! You have completed the tutorial. You tried Salt and now have a taste for some of its potential!

Next steps

Consider exploring Salt deeper by looking at some of these resources and features:

Resource

Description

Salt user guide

Read the instruction manual for the Salt Foundations course to get an introduction to key Salt concepts.

Install overview

Learn how to install Salt for use in production in the Salt Install Guide.

All Salt modules

Browse the list of modules to see the types of jobs Salt can do. Some popular ones are: file (remote execution module), file (state module), and pkg.

All Salt modules

Browse the list of modules to see the types of jobs Salt can do.

Salt analytics

This Salt extension allows users to run data processing pipelines alongside Salt.

Salt describe

This Salt extension creates templates for Salt by fetching the settings of remote salt minions.